The present invention relates to bibs, and in particular, to a disposable bib with torso side catch pockets, an improved bottom catch pocket and an improved neck opening directing the flow of matter into the pockets.
Based upon my experience as a Dietician wherein I have assisted in providing meals in medical care settings, there appears to be a serious problem with spillage when patients are served meals while in a semi-reclined position in a bed or special chair or other supporting device. Generally, bibs are used to meet the need of protecting the underlying garments of a wearer, be it a child or adult, from liquid or solid spills. Despite the multitude of bibs that are available, very few prove to be effective to protect the garments as well as the surrounding areas of the elderly, convalescing adults, and children from both liquid and solid spills during meal consumption, especially individuals in a medical care setting. Bedridden, convalescing, and handicapped individuals most often consume meals in a semi-reclined position from a bed or in a variety of specialized chairs. The meal is most often served on a tray placed on what is commonly known as a tray table. Most spillage for these individuals is due to poor control of eating utensils, poor body posture, and drooling which results in soiling of the neck and upper chest area. Use of most bibs in this setting appear to be only minimally effective when liquids and solids fall in the upper chest and neck area and gravitate down and to the sides. Thus, excessive soiling of garments as well as soiling of bedding, chairs, flooring and such remains a problem. Also, when excessive spills occur in medical care settings, they require an undesired increase in multiple care providers"" time to clean the individual, change their garments, the bedding, and re-sanitize floor areas. Since there is limited health care funding, there is a need to help control health care costs by containing spillage during meal consumption.
Disposable bibs with and without pockets are in common use. Disposable bibs without pockets generally shield only the front of garments. They retain very limited amounts of liquid spills, most often in a semi-absorbent material. Since they do not have pockets, they fail to contain solid spills that gravitate downwardly and to the sides. Disposable bibs with bottom edge catch pockets make an attempt to catch both solids and liquids that gravitate downwardly, but quite often there is a problem in keeping the bottom catch pocket open to catch the spillage. Many bottom catch pockets are effective in a gravitational catch if the wearer is sitting upright at a 90 degree angle with the bib torso length, and the bib planar surface are such that a pocket of adequate width, depth, and height remains fixed in an open position precisely under the spill. Since many convalescing and other individuals must eat their meals while in a semi-reclined position, the amount of soiling of garments and surrounding dining areas remains to be a problem, as evidenced by the large number of various bibs made to solve this problem. Yet, while some advancements have been made in attempts to keep the bottom catch pocket open, they still fail to contain the gravitational upper chest side spills that often occur when an individual is consuming a meal in a semi-reclined position, such as those in medical care settings.
Furthermore, flat planar bib surfaces, with or without a catch pocket at the bottom edge, often become distorted on physically developed adults. This distorted surface area generally results in less frontal protective surface area for splashes whereas spills gravitate to the sides, soiling garments and surrounding areas.
A bib that offers a snug fit at the neck opening to protect from spillage and drooling is often desirous. Drooling is a common occurrence in many post-operative, post-stroke patients and the elderly. While snug fitting, the neck opening still needs to be adjustable to accommodate various neck sizes. Risk of choking then becomes a serious problem, but can be greatly reduced by the elimination of not only strings and ties around the neck, but by also eliminating other mechanisms of hook loop and fasteners. Loops that completely encircle the entire neck region, present a high risk of choking if they are pulled on. Similar problems are relative to complete closures around the neck area which are not desirous, such as for those with surgical sites, intravenous therapy, tracheas and such in the neck region.
It would appear that an inexpensive, disposable bib having an improved neck design, in combination with connected side and bottom catch pockets, would eliminate the need for well-known, more expensive multi-layered bibs. A proposed disposable bib having open side and open bottom pockets would catch and contain spills and thus would decrease manufacturing cost as opposed to the multi-layered bibs. Thus, it would appear that side pockets would be a needed improvement on disposable bibs to help catch and contain spills for those in semi-reclined and other positions for all of the reasons listed above.
Although some known bibs have external fastening devices to an exterior surface area to hold the bottom catch pocket open, they fail to provide any method for containing upper torso spills for a wearer in a semi-reclined position. It is known that bib lower catch pockets with attachment points to tables and chairs can be compromised with body movement. It would appear that if the bottom catch pocket could be held open in conjunction with adjoining open side pockets by means of a unique construction, it would give additional flexibility to the bib. This should provide freedom of movement generally, not previously available. Thus, it appears that open bilateral side catch pockets would be needed, in addition to an open bottom catch pocket to improve the intended function of the bib. Whereas the pockets on the right and left sides of the proposed invention allow for the patient""s movement while maintaining the effect and holding capacity of the catch areas.
It does not appear that there is a bib with a neck design that provides means for directing spills and solids to a number of catch pockets. Also, it does not appear that there is a neck design in communication with bilateral open side pockets and an integrally open bottom catch pocket containment areas for spills to protect both the wearer""s garments and their immediate surrounding area.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for a bib which not only protects a wearer from spillage, but also collects the spilled food. In order to accomplish this, it is evident that there is a need in the art for an improved bib construction. Although there are a multitude of bibs available, it remains that they fail to catch and contain both solid and liquid spills for those persons in a semi-reclined position during meal consumption. No known bib overcomes the interworking dynamics of a semi-reclined person positioning and movement as does the proposed bib.
In accordance with the present invention, an improved disposable bib is provided that overcomes the deficiencies of prior art disposable bibs for protecting the garments and the surrounding areas of an individual in a semi-reclined position in a bed or while sitting in a specialized chair. The improved bib provides a sheet of flexible impervious material, adapted to overlie a frontal portion of the patient""s torso. The flexible sheeting having upper and lower ends which can be made from a unitary blank. A bottom open catch pocket having a transverse opening extending the full width of the lower end adapted to catch spilled liquid and falling food. Opposing bilateral open side catch pockets extending downwardly on opposite sides of the sheeting integral with the bottom catch pocket are adapted to catch spilled liquid and food along the sides of the sheeting and to direct the material into the adjoined lower end open bottom catch pocket. Cut out U-shaped neck elements at the upper end of the sheeting are configured to fit under the chin and only around the front neck area of the patient. The neck elements gathered design provides means for directing the spillage into the opposing sides and the bottom catch pockets. The sheeting preferably can be formed from a unitary blank of thin flexible plastic wherein the opposing sides and the lower end can be folded inwardly to form open integral catch pockets whereas the upper end can be cut-out to form the neck elements.